Private Tales For the Fun of It

[Irvidaess]

When one had lived as long as Irvidaess had, entertainment ran short. With enough time to see and do everything, there was rarely anything original or exciting. The white-haired dragon shifter had recently found something that was in fact original and exciting: scaring the local mortals. In her dragon form she really was quite intimidating- the narrow golden eyes, the rows of sharp teeth in a massive jaw, the long talons on each scaled limb, which were each roughly the size of tree trunk.

Her wingspan was massive, and the sun reflected off the flecks of gold across them. She roared menacingly but did not torch anything. That was a line she was unwilling to cross, and she wondered if given another few hundred years she would let go of that moral and cross that line. But for now, she merely flew over the town, her roars and the thunder of her wingbeats sending townspeople running around their little village like chickens with their heads cut off.

Whenever she went on one of these rampages, she never directly killed anyone, only scared them. But that didn't mean people hadn't died or couldn't die- fear could be enough to kill and so could a rush of people running about with only minds for themselves.

Ereven Theruvanen

 

[Ereven Theruvanen]

The old elf had been lounging by an old elm tree when the chaos had begun. High above the forest and hamlet nearby the sun shone with a brilliance that gave the small collection of homes an almost idyllic look, the vibrant greens contrasting well with the thatched roofs of human dwellings with crop fields extending in fields connecting to the town. The name of the town was Eorvin, and Ereven had visited it before some thirty years ago now. It had since doubled in size, though most of the people there seemed to be farmers, save for a single blacksmith who made tools for town. So much had changed, and yet, so little of it meant anything. It was a familiar sensation for the warrior, whose eyes had seen many such towns in his lifetime, so much so that even the slightest deviation from what was expected was of great interest to him. All else left him feeling hollow, numb to what always seemed like endlessly similar sights.

His mithril helm glittered in the sun next to him where he'd laid it in the grass, as he pulled his knees up and lay a piece of parchment against a small wooden block, taking an ink quill in his hand moments later and dotting the page in the upper left margin, as he so often did, an unintentional habit he'd formed despite the many, many years he'd stopped to sit and write poetry against the backdrop of a landscape such as the one he was now witnessing. Yet he would perk his ears and head up as he heard something, beginning as a whisper on the wind, a shift in the air. Looking upwards, he noticed too late the scaled assailant gliding through the air above the town, announcing its presence with a prideful roar. Typical for a dragon, Ereven thought, who calmly stashed his ink quill, mourning the empty page as he stuffed it back into his pack. For now, he stood, donning his helmet and fastening the long blade upon his waist in its scabbard, running forward to meet the winged terror.

As he ran forward, drawing his gleaming turquoise-hued adamantine falchion, he wondered if the dragon would notice him or not. Unafraid, Ereven twisted the blade in his hand, a trick he'd learned against flying foes during the daytime to distract and disorient them by impairing their vision, especially if they got too close to the ground. Before long, he was in the streets of Eorvin, prepared to do battle with the beast, and add another dragon to his count, a task which he took with all the enthusiasm of someone tidying up their room one too many times, barely able to muster the will to raise his sword as he prepared for the beast's ire...

 

[Irvidaess]

Irvidaess was having a good bit of fun but then her keen gold eyes picked up on something strange. This was not her first time flying over a small town and scaring them for fun, but what she was seeing now had never happened- there was a tall, slender looking man wearing a helmet with blade in hand, running across the ground beneath her as she flew. He quickly caught up to her flight speed which she found rather impressive, and his sword was raised above his head as if he planned on slicing her underbelly. Well, she couldn't let that happen.

She tucked her wings in and dove, landing hard on the cobblestone street, upsetting some stones and rubble. She took all of two steps towards the tall man on her thick legs, and then stopped. She paused a moment before opening her maw wide and roaring with enough force to blow his hair back.

The fool didn't seem to be afraid of her, but she could still have her fun. She wondered if he had ever killed a dragon before, and as she got a better look at him, she decided he had. He had a look in his eyes that spoke of years of killing.

Ereven Theruvanen

 

[Ereven Theruvanen]

It was a curious thing as the dragon approached him; a gravity it was, he thought, that must have pulled them together to this moment, or perhaps the twisted designs of some fate-weaver beyond the mortal coil guiding their actions. He'd seen this before: the proud warrior, the proud dragon, meeting in a final duel. Centuries of experience and life to be shed and wasted on either side, all to protect the doubtless ungrateful villagers who now fled the scene. Ereven had lived many years, however, and he had no intention of being someone else's puppet.

His lips shaped and formed words in the tongue of dragons, as fluently as he spoke his own native language. "A wretched thing it is for us to meet this day, o terrible one," he said, attempting to show the proper deference. Dragons were known for their haughtiness in his experience, their customs as rigid as those of the stuffiest, most cutthroat nobles in all the races of the world. Even so, Ereven took his left hand and began waving it, an emulation of a wing flap common in dragon-dragon conversations. "I have met a few dragons in my time, yet none of them were of the strength, beauty, or grace you possess upon your wicked wings."

The elf's stance didn't slacken; if anything, he tightened his grip upon his sword.

"Tell me, as the warrior seemingly tasked with taking your life—why have you begun to terrorize this little village?"

As he said it, a bald man shrieked and wailed down a nearby alley, throwing his hands in the air as he scrambled for cover. Almost imperceptibly, Ereven's eyes flicked over to the man, his lips curling ever-so-slightly into a smirk.

"Surely there is naught for one of your majesty here," he said. "I would not mourn your loss if I am required to slay you, but I cannot help but wonder for what reason you have even come here..."

 

[Irvidaess]

Irvidaess's gold eyes looked at Ereven with a glimmering curiosity. What was this strange elf man doing here, challenging her? She had never been challenged by any sort of real warriors before and she was both intrigued and a tad angry. He was challenging her fun, and she certainly couldn't have that.

He spoke in dragon tongue, the words only a little stiff- proving his worldliness. She was highly suspicious he had indeed killed a dragon before, likely more than one. She did not plan on adding to those numbers. Not today.

"You're ruining my fun," she snarled back, muscles rippling beneath her white and gold scales as she shifted on her taloned feet. Ruining was perhaps the wrong word- this elvish warrior was managing to make an interesting adventure terrorizing a town even more interesting by actually standing up to her and attempting to fight her.

Ereven Theruvanen

 

[Ereven Theruvanen]

Even with his many years of experience and the countless monsters he'd slain, as the dragon grew closer, Ereven found himself slightly unnerved. She was, after all, a dragon, not something to be trifled with even by whatever gods there were in this world, although given he'd claimed a few by now, it did give him pause as to the nature of his existence. The words she would snarl at him would only concern him further—if terrorizing people was fun to her, she must have been a wicked individual indeed.

"Fun?" he asked. There was no room to circle her there in the street, so instead he would slowly begin to pace. As he did so, he began to tap the tip of his blade in an uneven, discordant rhythm against the cobbled stone—an irritating distraction to prevent the dragon from following his movements as easily. Even so, she had begun to speak to him, which was more than most monsters did.

"It is my duty or some such to protect these people. More importantly, you've interrupted my moment of quiet upon the little hill overlooking this village, where one can see both the distant mountains and a little pond concealed by a tree line. Such moments are precious to me. So leave, have your fun elsewhere; there is no need for us to do battle here this day..."

 

[Irvidaess]

The elf warrior paced back and forth before her, dragging his sword along the ground with him. The blade was lowered, but that did not mean Irvidaess lowered her guard- she knew that blade could be stuck in between her scales at any moment, and her gold reptilian eyes were harsh and unblinking.

"Your duty from who? Or is this a self-appointed duty guided by some sort of moral compass you have within you?" she replied, her snarl hinting that she might indeed be mocking the elf.

He proposed she just go ahead and leave now to avoid battle, which Irvidaess found rather amusing. A younger version of herself would have believed he was too scared to fight her and was nobly trying to back out of what he started, but she was no longer stupid and naive. He didn't want a fight? Well that was exactly what he was going to get. And it was going to be fun, too.

Irvidaess' eyes seemed to glow brighter from within, and then that light took over her whole body, beaming off of her in rays. For a moment or two she was indiscernible from the dragon-sized ball of light.

Eventually, the light faded out, and there was no longer a dragon standing in the middle of the street. It had been replaced a tall, slender woman, with long, white hair. But her golden eyes were the same.

Irvidaess' human lips curled up into a smirk, and the next words out of them were in the common tongue. "I will have my fun right here," she drawled, a snarl reminiscent of her dragon form in her voice.

Ereven Theruvanen